STUDY Trade Unions in Germany Organisation, Environment, Challenges HEINER DRIBBUSCH AND PETER BIRKE May 2012 n The trade unions in Germany and the system of social partnership and codetermina­tion have undergone a number of developments in recent years the upshot of which is that the workers’ side has been weakened. n At the end of 2010 only 19 per cent of employees were members of a trade union. This represents a decrease of around 5 per cent over 10 years. n This has affected wage development insofar as there has been no compensation for inflation since 2004. In most of the years in question, real income fell. In the EU, Germany brought up the rear with regard to real-wage development between 2000 and 2009. n Nevertheless, in the wake of the economic and financial crisis various collectively agreed and company-level instruments have contributed substantially to job security, more specifically collectively agreed and company-level measures involving flexible working time, company-level job security agreements and(further) financial conces­sions on the part of employees. n The positive employment balance in the crisis applies more to core workforces than to the growing number of precarious employees. Fixed-term employees in many instances did not have their contracts renewed and many temporary workers soon lost their jobs. n Against this background, IG Metall in particular is focusing more strongly on tem­porary workers. It achieved its first collective bargaining breakthrough in this regard in the steel industry in September 2010: for the first time, equal pay for temporary workers was laid down in an industry-wide agreement. International Trade Union Policy